#OCCUPY DEMOCRATS

[smashing-yng-man]

[captainpirateface]

[thashining]

📸• @occupydemocrats BREAKING:🚨Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Mike Johnson are hit with devastating news as Occupy Democrats announces that its new YouTube channel dedicated “solely to exposing the criminality of President-elect Trump and his Republican co-conspirators — as well as their extremist anti-democracy agenda” is now rivaling FOX News on Youtube in terms of daily views.

But it gets WORSE for Trump…

Occupy Democrats also announced that its new YouTube channel, which just recently got off the ground, will expose Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s racist, fascist agenda — and even showcase Trump’s criminal history and authoritarian tactics so that every single American will know that “standing boldly and strongly in opposition to his agenda is an absolute must.”

@occupy-democrats

[in4newz]

[democracyunderground]

BREAKING: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unleashes a historic speech scorching Donald Trump's idiocy over his disastrous new tariffs: "This is a very dumb thing to do."

This is what an actual world leader sounds like...

"The United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they're talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying murderous dictator," began Trudeau.

"Make that make sense."

Trump's 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico took effect today and the markets are in free fall. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has already plummeted 662 points after plunging 650 points on Monday. The S&P 500 lost 1.3% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9%

The gullible fools who thought that Trump would be "good for the economy" have had the rug pulled out from under them in record time.

"Canadians are reasonable and we are polite," Trudeau continued. "But we will not back down from a fight, not when our country and the well-being of everyone in it is at stake. At the moment, the U.S. tariffs came into effect in the early hours of this morning and so did the Canadian response."

"Canada will be implementing 25% tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods starting with tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods immediately and tariffs on the remaining $125 billion of American products in twenty-one days time," said Trudeau. "Our tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. tariffs are withdrawn and not a moment sooner."

"And should these tariffs not cease, we are in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures, measures which will demonstrate that there are no winners in a trade war," he threatened.

"Now just like I did a month ago, I want to speak first directly to the American people. We don't want this," said Trudeau. "We want to work with you as a friend and ally and we don't want to see you hurt either."

"But your government has chosen to do this to you," he stated bluntly. "As of this morning, markets are down and inflation is set to rise dramatically all across your country."

"Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada or because of consumers in Canada or both," he went on.

"They've chosen to raise costs for American consumers on everyday essential items like groceries and gas, on major purchases like cars and homes, and everything in between," he continued.

"They've chosen to harm American national security, impeding access to the abundant critical minerals, energy, building materials, and fertilizers that we have and that the United States needs to grow and prosper," he explained.

"They've chosen to launch a trade war that will first and foremost harm American families. They've chosen to sabotage their own agenda that was supposed to usher in a new 'Golden Age' for the United States," said Trudeau, taking a direct shot at MAGA's latest inane rhetoric.

"And they've chosen to undermine the incredible work that we've done together to tackle the scourge that is fentanyl, a drug that must be wiped from the face of the Earth," he added. "So on that point, let me be crystal clear. There is absolutely no justification or need whatsoever for these tariffs today."

Trudeau then shifted gears to go after Donald Trump directly, the clueless mastermind behind this entire disaster—

"Now I want to speak directly to one specific American: Donald. In the over eight years you and I have worked together, we've done big things," said Trudeau, appealing to Trump's ego.

"We signed a historic deal that has created record jobs and growth in both of our countries. We've done big things together on the world stage as Canada and the U.S. have done together for decades, for generations," he continued. "And now we should be working together to ensure even greater prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world."

"Now, it's not in my habit to agree with The Wall Street Journal but Donald, they point out that even though you're a very smart guy this is a very dumb thing to do. We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see," said Trudeau.

"And now to my fellow Canadians: I won't sugarcoat it. This is going to be tough even though we're all going to pull together because that's what we do," he added. "We will use every tool at our disposal so Canadian workers and businesses can weather this storm."

Canadians are lucky to have someone like Trudeau steering the ship of state through the geopolitical waters of Hurricane Donald. The Canadian Prime Minister is sane, thoughtful, and well-intentioned, all of the things that Trump is not.

The worst part about this economic nosedive is that it's absolutely pointless and completely avoidable. Trump's demands make absolutely no sense. He's just trying to look tough to appease his MAGA base and dragging all of us along for the ride.

Buckle up. The Trump economy might soon be the worst in American history.

Please like and share!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When parties fail, movements step up

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Does anyone like the American two party system? The parties are opaque, private organizations, weak institutions that are prone to capture and corruption, and gerrymandering's "safe seats" means that the real election often takes place in the party's smoke-filled rooms, when a sure-thing candidate is selected:

https://doctorow.medium.com/weak-institutions-a26a20927b27

But there doesn't seem to be any way to fix it. For one thing, the two parties are in charge of any reform, and they're in no hurry to put themselves out of business. It's effectively impossible for a third party to gain any serious power in the USA, and that's by design. After the leftist Populists party came within a spitting distance of power in the 1890s, the Dems and Repubs got together and cooked the system, banning fusion voting and erecting other structural barriers.

The Nader and Perot campaigns were doomed from the outset, in other words. Either candidate could have been far more popular than the D and R on the ballot, and they still would have lost. It's how the deck is stacked, and to unstack it, reformers would need to take charge of at least one – and probably both – of the parties.

But that's not cause for surrender – it's a call to action. In an interview with Seymour Hersh, Thomas Frank (Listen, Liberal) sets out another locus of power, one with the potential to deliver control over the party to its base: social movements:

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/ordinary-people-by-the-millions

It's been done before. The parties are routinely transformed by power-shifts within their internal coalitions: since 1970, corporate Dems have consistently pushed the party to the right, making it the power of white-collar professionals and relying on working people showing up and marking their ballots with a D because they have "nowhere else to go."

Bill Clinton was the most successful of these corporate raiders, delivering the parts of the Reagan Revolution that Reagan himself could never have managed: dismantling tariffs and bank regulations, passing the crime bill and welfare "reform." He came within a whisper of (partially) privatizing Social Security.

This set in motion the forces that made Trumpism possible: when Dems told deindustrialized workers to "learn to code" and blamed them for the destruction of their communities, it opened a space for Make America Great Again, the (empty) workerist rhetoric of the GOP. The Dems' plan of putting "really smart people" in charge and letting them run things was a (predictable) disaster. "Really smart" isn't the same as "infallible" and really smart people can be spooked or bulled into doing the wrong thing – like Obama "foaming the runways" for the banks with the houses of mortgage holders, and leaving the bankers responsible for the Great Financial Crisis unscathed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/15/mon-dieu-les-guillotines/#ceci-nes-pas-une-bailout

"Really smart people" can't get us out of this mess. Instead, we need the kind of muscular political action – the "whirlwind" – that characterized FDR's New Deal: "complete reformation of the banking industry.. just about every other industry as well. Regulation. Social Security. Public works. Antitrust. Soil conservation."

FDR got there by alienating his former classmates and refusing the go-slow entreaties of his cronies. He got there because there was a mass social movement that made him do it ("I want to do it, now make me do it"):

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/i-agree-with-you-i-want-to-do-it-now-make-me-do-it/

Every time in US history where one of the political party duopoly listened to its base, it was because of a mass social movement: the farmers' movement (1890s), labor (1930s), civil rights and antiwar (1960s). As Frank says:

Social movements succeed. They build and they change the intellectual climate and then, when the crisis comes, they make possible things like agrarian reform or the New Deal or the Civil Rights acts of the 1960s.

Today, we see the seeds of those social movements: the new union movement. Black Lives Matter. Neobrandeisians with their "hipster antitrust." These are the movements that are creating "ideas lying around": ideas that, in time of crisis, can move from the fringe to the center in an eyeblink:

https://doctorow.medium.com/ideas-lying-around-33a28901a7ae

They are setting in motion another transformation of the Democratic Party, from its top-down, "really smart people" model to a bottom-up, people-powered one, kept in check by movements, not party bosses. As Frank says, "They require the mass participation of ordinary people. Without that, I am afraid that nothing is possible."

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/17/popular-front-of-judea/#speaking-frankly

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri:

“If you’re not at the table, then you're probably on the menu.” ~Ann Richards A few days ago, I had some thoughts on churches. I read a post about a local church in St Joseph, Missouri and its activities during the holiday season. This specific church has been meddling in local politics for years and I started thinking about their tax-exempt status. After I called the church to check on their activities in helping others in the community, I realized that they were not helping in their community other than offering up their congregants as free labor to other organizations who help in the community.

Churches are tax-exempt because they offer services that local government can’t or won’t. Food pantries. Free clothing closets. Help with natural disasters. This church is doing none of that except sending their members to serve in ministries provided by other non-profits. They keep their tax-free tithes for themselves. After researching, I wrote this post on Blue Sky: This post did fairly well for Blue Sky. It’s not Twitter viral, but still pretty good. I am a creator. A writer. I am also constantly plagiarized. You might be surprised by who is lifting my intellectual property. It’s the massive “progressive” accounts who steal from small authors like myself. It’s “Feminist News” or “Occupy Democrats” or “The Other 98%” who take the ideas and thoughts and writing of progressives like me. They do it so often that readers and followers don’t even notice.

But I do. They have taken my words — word for word — too often. They do it regularly. Just go look at the pages of these huge accounts. They turn the writings of others into meme form and post online with zero attribution. A friend sent me the above screenshot. “Feminist News” ripped off my quote about churches word for word without attribution. They have nearly 2 million followers on Facebook alone. I asked them to cite me and it took dozens of others in their comments for them to edit their post and add my name. But, they didn’t add my name to the meme — it is still being shared thousands of times without a citation. This happens frequently, but what really sticks in my craw is that this is a progressive account that claims to back feminism, yet they lift the words of progressive women creators with alarming regularity. I have people tell me that “it doesn’t matter who the messenger is, but that the message is getting out.”

[...]

Where are the women? What is going on? Do we honestly think women won’t be involved in the writing and creation of bills and laws and committee work? Of course they will. Will they receive credit for their work? Likely not — they will be behind the scenes writing the questions and statements and legislation for committee men. Their work will be taken and used by the men acting as committee chairs. Women, even women lawmakers, have been pushed behind the scenes. This makes it difficult to put women’s issues front and center.

We are being pushed back into the shadows. Behind the curtain. And if the Republicans have anything to do with it, probably behind the veil. Let’s not forget that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was passed by Congress in 1972, but it has not yet been ratified and is not part of the U.S. Constitution. The ERA has been reintroduced in every session of Congress since 1982, but it has not been ratified. It’s time to ratify the ERA. It’s time to stand with women and make sure we are represented and legally protected in all facets of life including government. Especially in times like these. It is also time for women to demand equal pay for equal work. It is time to demand citations and attributions and a seat at the table. It is time for us to stand up for ourselves and the young women coming behind us. Our work is often co-opted and it’s time we demand better. Cite us. Pay us.

Jess Piper delivering an important message that it’s important to credit a person’s work. Also, it’s time to ratify the ERA.

[spidermartini]

GUUUUUURRRRLLLLLLL

Pop the cork and enjoy the W

[wherepond]

Trump unhinged

Musk unelected

Maddow cheers as Wall Street Journal stuns Musk & Trump

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow just cheered while reporting on a new report from The Wall Street Journal that exposes Elon Musk and Donald Trump!

[captainpirateface]

[in4newz]

Maxwell Alejandro Frost is an American politician and activist serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 10th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was previously the national organizing director for March for Our Lives. Elected at age 25, Frost is the youngest member of the United States Congress.

[democracyunderground]

[arcadiaberger]

Florida Crowd ROARS As Mick Jagger DESTROYS Ron DeSantis

One out of four of the people who died from COVID-19 was an American.

Thanks, donald.

One out of four of the Americans who died from COVID-19 was a Floridian.

Thanks, Ronald.

[whiny-little-bitch]

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A post shared by Occupy Democrats (@occupydemocrats)

[miochimochi]

Imma say this right now... I fucking hate Occupy Democrats. They're essentially a Democrat parody of Fox News but they're serious. Snakes, the lot of em.

[sspacegodd]